


Life as a Merc (doesn't seem as fun)

by AngeNoir



Series: Inktober 2017 [6]
Category: The Losers (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Alternate Universe - Space Opera, Bandits & Outlaws, Bounty Hunters, Gen, Space Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 05:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12292689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngeNoir/pseuds/AngeNoir
Summary: Cougar joined the Mercenary Guild for protection, for something that would give him legitimate work, and for that sense of family he was lacking. He found the first, barely the second, and never the third.Hell, the bounty they were chasing treated him better than most of his team did.Inktober Drabble 6 = Universe: The Losers / List: Space Travelers / Prompt: The Dark Figure





	Life as a Merc (doesn't seem as fun)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for inktober, based on the prompt "The Dark Figure" from a Space Travelers list. (You can see [and prompt me!] my initial post about my inktober writings [here](http://outercorner.tumblr.com/post/165938959460/so-i-am-gonna-be-trying-this-inktober-thing-but).)
> 
> Super late x.x I'm trying but overall i guess it doesn't super matter

There were quite a few dark figures in Cougar’s long history as a merc, and he had to admit, he had probably left more of those dark figures bleeding in the sands of forgotten planets than most would.

He had become a merc mostly because there was not a lot of things a Arcturan could be in the Empire. Not a lot of legal things, at least. As a merc, he at least could fall under the protection of the Mercenary Guild’s bylaws and get a fairly decent credit haul from the jobs, and if the other humanoid races looked down on him for what he was, well... He dealt with it.

Tugging his hat low over his eyes, he closed his golden eyes and slumped lower in his seat, trying not to get involved in the asinine argument Rollins and Wilcox were having over their latest quarry. Cougar didn’t really know what he felt in regards to the prey their leader had chosen to hunt down, but he was just the support, the eye in the sky and the voice in the ear, protecting his team as they went in to extract their targets.

Most of their targets were wanted in numerous star systems, and it was easy enough to dump them in an ultra-max shithole somewhere and collect the finder’s fee before moving on to the next bounty. Their latest chosen hunt, however, was one that promised a big reward - but also seemed like a big risk. Not just because it was a long hunt - something that would not be over quickly, and something that would definitely be a challenge with more than one target - but because they had already been on this hunt for about one Standard Month period and mercs were not known for their ability to stick around without a constant payout.

Their targets, so-called Ante outlaws, flying in the spacecraft titled the Loser, had hit a lot of different high profile targets. Cruise lines, transport, freighters, communication hubs, and even tourist resort stations. It had been enough that the parent company, Mx Inc., offered an extremely large bounty to bring in all four of the crew - particularly more for the group’s techie.

The argument continued and Cougar tuned it out, closed his eyes. He’d hunted down the men who had poached his family, he’d killed his first instructor that had treated him like a veritable slave, and many of the shadows that had haunted him once had fallen by his hand. His past was soaked in blood. He’d continue killing those that deserved it, according to his code, and hunting down those that others had decided deserved the hunt. Still...

He didn’t know, though, about this job. He didn’t like the idea of hunting down a group - a group that had evaded everyone else so far - because a group had cohesion. A lone target, sure - lone targets were easy. You could slip in, pick up the target, and leave, and no one would be creating a larger plan.

A group, however...

And that said nothing to his own research into the Ante group, his own understanding of what they were doing. How he agreed with much of what they had done so far.

He must have dozed off, because the next he knew, he was being kicked in the ankle and his group’s leader, Zy’Ryk, was standing over him.

“We gotta hunt down any traces they might have left. Put out the noise that we’re looking for this group in this corner of the pissing universe.”

Cougar huffed and slowly stood up, proud of the way he kept his distaste and dislike of this group off his face. He needed the money this group brought in, so he couldn’t afford to anger his leader and risk being cut off. Instead, he grabbed his modified Storm Bow, slung it onto his back, and stepped out of the belly of the ship out onto the deck on this tiny, misbegotten speck of a planet known as Rvl. This was the last place the Antes had been seen, and they were going to do the standard police evaluation - knocking on doors, looking for the reactors, checking out any security footage that still remained.

They had nothing, they had had nothing for the past month, and Cougar was sure that the Ante’s techie would have shadowed out anything they could have found here which meant that again, they would find nothing.

After practically half of the sun cycle of this planet, Cougar decided he needed to find somewhere to eat - he wasn’t finding anyone who could tell him anything about the group, and he was hungry. As an Arcturan, there weren’t a lot of places that would serve Cougar, but finally he found a place that would put food in his hand before sending him out the door. Leaning against the wall, licking his fingers of the dripping juice of whatever local meat this meal was made out of, Cougar’s wrist pinged. His communicator - but he knew it wasn’t anyone from his crew.

No, he knew who it was, and had to admit that, of all the shadows he ever tracked down, this shadow, this techie, that constantly sent messages to Cougar throughout his crew’s hunt of them, was charming.

If he ever did track down this group, he wasn’t sure if he would capture them - or join them.


End file.
